55 Easy DIY Easter Crafts to Make With Your Family This April

You've dyed the eggs and laid out the candy-filled baskets, but if you're still itching to tackle more easy Easter crafts before the bunny arrives, consider dressing up your home. These family-friendly, inexpensive DIY ideas will delight kids and adults of all ages—and add a punch of Easter cheer to your humble abode. Plus, we threw in a few homemade sweet treats and handcrafted projects to liven up your annual Easter egg hunt. Also, once you've finished making your at-home Easter decorations, check out these adorable Easter crafts for kids.

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Lisa Tilse for We Are Scout

Watercolor Cookies

What's not to love about a crafts and sweets combo!? Plus, it's way easier than you think to give your Easter desserts the pretty pastel treatment. After you've baked the egg-shaped cookies, simply layer with icing, water down a few hues of natural or synthetic food coloring, and paint away to create your edible works of art.

Swap out traditional place cards for these personalized eggs, which you can craft in less than 15 minutes. Get the look by using a small paintbrush to fleck tan acrylic paint (thinned with a bit of water) on undyed farm eggs. Once dry, handwrite each guest's initials with a gold paint pen.

Let guests know what they're about to cut or dish into with these festive recipe card holders (they also work as rustic place card holders!). DIY them by cutting a thin sliver in a small piece of a branch. Place atop wood round and add moss and eggs, if desired.

Who knew that silk fabric transfers onto eggshells as easily as the dye in a decorating kit? Regular old vinegar plus hot water does the trick.

Step 1: For each egg, cut out a 5-inch square of patterned 100 percent silk. (We limited ourselves to black-and-white prints to achieve the effect above; colored patterns yield more vibrant results.) Lightly dampen the fabric, then lay it flat, right side up, and place your egg in the center. Gather the fabric tightly around the egg, like a beggar's purse, and secure with a rubber band. Repeat this step for the same egg, using a same-size square of plain white cotton and a second rubber band. Note: Use blown eggs if you'd like to keep your handiwork longer.

Step 2: Place eggs in a single layer in a nonreactive pot and add enough water to cover them by 2 inches. Add 4 tablespoons of white vinegar. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.

Step 3: Remove eggs with tongs and cool about 20 minutes. Then unwrap the fabrics to reveal the exquisite designs.

Robin's Egg: To create the base color shown above, add two drops of green food coloring to standard blue egg dye, and then dye egg. Once dry, dip a fine-tipped paintbrush in a small bowl of brown liquid ink (available at craft stores) and splatter on the egg.

Paper Napkin Egg: Unfold a paper napkin and cut into ½-inch-wide strips. Use Mod Podge and a small paintbrush to adhere strips to the egg, lining up the pattern and trimming away any excess napkin. Once covered, let dry, then apply a final coat of Mod Podge.

Twine Egg: Use a small paintbrush to apply crafter's glue onto the top of an egg. Starting in the center of the top, wrap twine (we used four-ply) into a tight circle. Continue to brush on glue and wrap the egg until it is completely covered. (You will use approximately 12 feet of twine.) Trim excess.

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Frances Janisch

Almond Joy Wreath

Egg-shaped Jordan almonds make an especially sweet spring decoration.

Step 1: Take a 12-inch Styrofoam wreath, and beginning with the inside circumference, hot-glue the almonds in place, overlapping a few of them to add dimension.

Step 2: Continue in a circular pattern until the entire front and inner and outer edges of the wreath are covered.

Step 3: Hang with a sturdy piece of cotton ribbon, or oversize rickrack trim as shown.

To store the wreath, wrap it in paper, place flat in a box, and keep in a cool, dry spot. It should last for one to two years.

To stitch up one of these kid-friendly accessories, you'll need a child-size headband and 11⁄2 yards of 1⁄2-inch-wide double- fold bias tape.

Step 1: Cut an 181⁄2- inch-long piece of bias tape. Hem the cut ends under 1⁄2 inch on each side, then stitch together the long side to form a casing. Fold the casing in half so that the ends touch and use a straight pin to mark the fold's center.

Step 2: Feed an extra-thick, 12-inch-long pipe cleaner through one end of the casing, stopping at the pin. Feed a second pipe cleaner through the casing's other end until it, too, meets the pin; remove pin. Bring the casing's open ends toward each other and twist the exposed pipe cleaners together to form a rabbit ear shape. Repeat steps one and two to make a second ear.

Step 3: Cut a piece of bias tape the length of the headband, plus one extra inch. Wrap the tape over the headband, then use pins to mark the two spots where you want to attach the ears (use the photo at left for guidance).

Step 4: Remove the tape from the headband and stitch the long side together, from the pins out to both ends of the tape; stitch these ends closed, and remove pins. Twist the ears' pipe-cleaner ends around the headband in the desired spots, then slide each end of the headband into the casing. Use a needle and thread to slip-stitch the tape around and between the ears closed.

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Alison Gootee/Studio D

Ombré Easter Eggs

You can create this dramatic display with just two 0.25-ounce vials of blue dye you may already have in the kitchen. Set out six 12-ounce glasses, labeled A through F. Add one cup of boiling water and two teaspoons of white vinegar to each and stir, using a separate spoon for each glass. Then, mix in the color as follows: A, two drops; B, six drops; C, 10 drops; D, 20 drops; E, 45 drops; F, 60 drops. Submerge a hard-boiled egg in each glass. Steep for five minutes, or until you're happy with the hue, then remove and place in an empty egg carton to dry. Repeat with additional eggs (up to three dozen).

Dry-erase paint gives simple wooden animal shapes new purpose. Drill a small hole near the top of one duck, as shown. Following package instructions for the dry-erase paint, cover the front and back of the duck with three coats, allowing at least 30 minutes of drying time after each coat. Let cure for two days. Thread a length of string through the hole and use a dry-erase marker to write a child's name on the tag before hanging it on an Easter basket.

Take a page from the grade-school activity book with these delicate candy dishes, made using shredded brown lunch bags and sheets from an old dictionary. You can also use these nests to corral your decorated Easter eggs.

Step 1: Tightly cover a small bowl with plastic wrap, then flip the bowl upside down on wax paper. In another container, mix equal parts water and clear glue.

Step 2: Dip handfuls of shredded paper into the glue mixture, then immediately lay them on the bowl until it's covered.

Step 2: Arrange them in a Microsoft Word document, resizing each to fit on an egg.

Step 3: Print the images on tattoo paper, cut them out, and adhere to blown-out eggs, following package instructions.

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Burcu Avsar

Lamb Motif Candles

Inspired by a project on Curly Birds, this gentle flock comes together easily with a sheet of white beeswax, a miniature lamb cookie cutter, and wire wick. To make each candle, press the cutter into the wax; repeat twice more to create three wax layers. Cut a one-inch piece of wick and sandwich it between two wax layers, so half the wick extends above the wax. Place a toothpick atop the sandwiched layers so that it aligns with the wick but does not extend above the wax. Top with the third wax layer, then carefully press all three together before sticking the candle in a sweet treat.

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Burcu Avsar

Polished Placemats

The main ingredients for this visual feast, from CL contributor Jodi Kahn: silk flowers, like French tulips and dogwood blossoms, plus natural-colored placemats.

Step 1: Cut each flower off its stem, trimming the back side so it lies flat.

Step 2: Using our photo as a guide, experiment with flower placement on the left side of the mats. Once you're satisfied with the arrangements, use chalk to sketch a stem, leaves, or branches. Mark where each flower will go, then set the flowers aside.

Step 3: Using a needle and green or brown embroidery floss, follow the chalk marks with running stitches.

Step 4: Attach the flowers with large nylon snaps. At each marked spot, hand-stitch the socket part of a snap onto the placemat. Next, hot-glue the ball part of the snap to the underside of the flower. Let dry for three minutes before snapping the flower onto the placemat. (Note: Simply snap off each flower before dry-cleaning or washing the placemats by hand.)

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Philip Friedman/Studio D

Pretty Patterned Easter Eggs

They look elaborate, but all of these designs were made with plain old masking tape.

Step 1: Simply cut the tape into strips to create stripes and plaids, use paper punches for letters or plant and animal shapes, and try craft scissors for the wavy bands.

Step 2: Then apply the tape carefully to the shells of raw eggs, smoothing out any air bubbles, and tint according to the dye package's instructions (we used Paas).

Step 3: Once the shells dry, blow out the yolks and remove the tape to reveal your motifs.

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Laura Moss

Bunny Shade

Let the sun shine in through cutouts of floppy-eared bunnies sitting in tall blades of grass. Made from medium-weight paper, the shade's border is cut out after tracing a rabbit-shaped cookie cutter, which serves as the motif's template.

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